Our View: NCC drama takes toll on athletes

If you enjoy a good drama, you'll love the North Central Conference as it goes through an angst-driven realignment that includes the departure of New Castle and the addition of Harrison, Lafayette Jeff and McCutcheon high schools.

New Castle, a charter member of the NCC when it was formed in 1926 (along with Central High School), is departing for the Hoosier Heritage Conference after this year, citing travel expenses and other financial issues.

Huntington North plans to leave after the 204-15 school year.

At at meeting last month with IHSAA officials in Indianapolis involving New Castle and other schools from the NCC, it was decided to void contracts in all team sports except for football. New Castle will not pay a $2,000 "exit fee" to each school in the NCC, which would have allowed New Castle to remain eligible for individual honors and team championships this year.

The exit fee was required as part of an amendment to bylaws should a school not give sufficient notice that it wanted to leave the conference.

NCC schools can schedule New Castle on their own, but it will not be considered conference play. And don't look for the storied basketball match-up this year between New Castle and Central. That's off the calendar.

Got all that? There's more intrigue and drama here than a season's worth of "Keeping up with the Kardashians." Almost.

Why else would there be a need for a "cooling off period" as Central Principal Tom Jarvis described it during a recent school board meeting?

What's lost in all the drama is this: The actions of a few adults (who on the surface seem to be acting like kids) are making decisions that affect student athletes not just in football and basketball, but for all sports - boys and girls. These actions are taking away any chance of an athlete or team earning a conference or championship trophy. They're the ones being punished.

Is this fair to the student athletics or their parents?

The NCC is a tradition-steeped conference, and has accumulated almost countless statewide championships in all sports. History dictates that members come from county seats (many now Rust Belt cities) and are contiguous. Looking at a map, the conference stretches from Wayne County northwest to Tippecanoe County (next year). It can often take more than two hours to travel to a far-away conference foe.

At least some of the conference maneuvering within the NCC and other conferences is a desire to have an even number of teams. That makes scheduling conference opponents easier, and large conferences can split into divisions to ease travel concerns, something under consideration by the NCC. That desire is why New Castle made the move to the HHC so quickly, and why that has annoyed NCC opponents.

What's sad is most of the sports schedules for New Castle and other NCC schools were already set. Now that's all in limbo.

Athletes had no say in the matter. But they will surely pay the price of this drama, thanks to the adults who are supposed to be looking out for the best interests of students.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Email this article

Our View: NCC drama takes toll on athletes

If you enjoy a good drama, you'll love the North Central Conference as it goes through an angst-driven realignment that includes the departure of New Castle and the addition of Harrison, Lafayette